How will I get enough sleep after my baby arrives?

The advice that many people will give you is to sleep when your newborn is sleeping. This is VERY sound advice. Sleep is important to your ability to cope and to your mental state. If you are feeling exhausted, you are more likely to feel weepy and unable to cope with the demands that your new baby is making on you. This can lead to depression. Rest is also important for your milk production.

You need to determine how many hours of sleep you needed to function before you fell pregnant. This is the amount of sleep you should be aiming for every day after the baby arrives as well. You will not be able to get all of this sleep in one go. You should therefore stay in bed or keep going back to bed until you have achieved your necessary amount of sleep.

The best way to do this is to stay in your pyjamas in the morning and only get out of bed to care for your baby, if you need the toilet and if you need to eat. If it takes you from the previous evening until 12 noon in order to achieve the required sleep, that is okay. At whatever time you manage to achieve your determined amount of sleep, get up, showered and dressed.

In most cases your baby will be sleeping in the room with you and babies also need a vast amount of sleep in the early weeks. So when your baby cries, tend to her needs and then you can both go back to sleep. When your baby begins to sleep for longer periods during the night, you will be able to make up your sleeping hours really easily and won't need most of the morning to catch up on lost sleep.

It is important to ignore household chores at this time. If you have the energy to do them once you have had your shower and dressed by all means, go ahead. Otherwise, leave the chores for other family members, friends or a postpartum doula.

Good luck!
Kerry